Teach Primary Issue 19.6

Q A & 1 What is your idea of perfect happiness in your job? Having a day where we are all just people learning, as a team, together. We might be knee-deep in a stream, finding things we haven’t seen before, making up the most brilliant story or spending a whole afternoon focused on a DT project, but everyone is engaged, and we are thrilled with what we are doing. Those are the magical days. 2 What is your greatest fear at work? My panic dream is always about not being ready or not being able to grab the attention of the class. But in my waking hours I worry about certain children, even years after I’ve taught them. My fear is that they’ll get lost in the system or let down by life and, whilst I can build them up when they are in my class, I can’t do that for them forever. My greatest fear is that certain children won’t thrive; and I want them to. 3 What is your current state of mind? I am dropping hours at school to spend more time being creative! I’m currently working on a graphic novel to explain the difference between melting and dissolving, with my fabulous illustrator Rufus Thomas at Artful Fox Creatives. I’m also working with the wonderful David Allen on a website full of drama ideas to put drama and oracy in every lesson. So, I’m feeling hopeful that my work-life balance might tip more into the ‘only slightly bonkers’ region soon, as it’s been at ‘overwhelm’ for some time. 7 What do you consider your greatest teaching achievement? When I meet a teenager in the shop and they come rushing up to say they are taking chemistry A Level or doing a degree in marine biology, I am always beyond delighted. That feels like a brilliant thing, especially when they are not from a science background. I’ve been a passionate promoter of science for the last 30 years, science for all, not just those with scientist parents and not just for boys. 8 What is your most treasured teaching possession? My Michael Rosen poetry books. I’ve had to replace Quick Let’s Get Out of Here because I have read it to shreds. My best party trick is to read ‘The Outing’ and replace all the names with children in my class (and remember who I’ve replaced with whom as they are repeated later in the poem). Although, I also love my hand-held microscope – who knew my fingernails were so gross? 4 What do you consider the most overrated teacher virtue? What’s a teacher virtue? Does it involve making 60 glue sticks last all year? I’m rubbish at that. 5 On what occasion do you lie to your class? There are moments when plans change – the guitar teacher doesn’t turn up or we’ve had wet play and the children are wild. In those moments I say, “I know what we’ll do…” I’m lying. I often have no idea at all, but somehow some words come out of my mouth, and we do that. 6 Which words or phrases do you most overuse with your class? I think you’d have to ask them and it’s different for every class. This year I feel I’ve said, “My mouth is still moving so it isn’t your turn to talk,” with alarming regularity. But apparently one local family still use something I said a lot to one class over 15 years ago… “My grandmother wears red knickers but is it relevant now?” We take the famous Proust questionnaire and pose eight of its questions to a fellow educator. Take a peek into the deepest depths of a teacher’s soul... 114 | www.teachwire.net F EATURE S BACK PAGE NAME: Jules Pottle JOB ROLE: Class teacher (part-time), science co-ordinator, director of Storytelling Schools, author, primary science consultant EXTRA INFO: Watch out for Let’s Do Drama! (letsdodrama.com) , coming soon. “When things haven’t gone to plan, and I say, “I know what we’ll do…” I’m lying.” sciencethroughstory.com @MrSpottle